Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Visually, I’m an “Observer,” in that I like to study the world around me from a purely physical point of view. I like looking at God’s work and that includes people, animals, grass, trees, love trees, anyway, mostly live things. I’m a beauty addict and can find beauty in everything. I find it fascinating that humans everywhere have pretty much the same features and yet the variety is endless. And yes, I do make up stories about the people and animals that catch my eye and I have sketchbooks full of character sketches that I make of the people I see. But I’m shy, so I do all my studying on the down low, and will sooner talk with an animal, than to a person.

So after the “Observer” space, I have the “In My Own World” space. This is the scientist in me, where I am always working on some kind of problem. Whether it’s how to design a better hinge for that raven poison ring (don’t ask), trying to figure out how to make the two ends of a story meet or reexamining the thing I did correctly or improperly in my latest sparring match, I’m always taking apart or putting something back together. In this area you can also find me deciphering the latest episode of Ted Talks… brilliant show that.

Another section of my mind, I’ll call “Research,” because generally all that looking and taking things apart will bring up a bunch of questions and I’ll make notes (between the doodles of my future characters) of things I need to Goggle to understand better. This way I can add the “thing” to a story correctly or discard it as a viable story component.

Then there is an overriding section I’ll call “Music,” because I am never without my iPod. Okay, I don’t go to sleep in it. But music is pretty much my muse, so I need to have background music…all day, everyday. To my mind, everything is better with music… with the right soundtrack, hell can become heaven and heaven can be eternal. Music brings the emotions and rhythms of my stories to light and to life, and allows me to fine tune my characters and their ideals. I, like my characters, am a Radiohead fan.

There’s bunch of other mental spaces that have to do with my real life job and my lover, but pretty much this is my mental state of being, in regard to writing.

I’ll be walking through the city, with my iPod serenading my mind, as I study the living world around me, working out the mechanics for that reverse punch I screwed up this morning and wondering if Goggle can help. (Jeez, I sound like a stoner, but I’m not, really.)

Anyway, sometimes you catch magical moments when the song streaming through your head, lines up with the skate boarder who does a perfect 360 right before your eyes and suddenly the kink in your story line just unravels… and the air seems fresher.

So, you smile at the boarder and he smiles back and you grab your pad and scribble out the answer, right next to the sketch you made earlier of the character’s face. Then you crank your music a little higher and head home to write it all down…and it flows.